Joe Chrest has played Ted Wheeler since season 1 of Stranger Things. You may not really know much about the father of Nancy, Mike, and Holly because he really doesn’t do anything but he has been there. And now we all want to know: Is he dead or alive?
At the start of season 5, Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) sent his demogorgans to collect Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) from the Wheeler house. He took her into the Upside Down but not without a fight. Karen Wheeler (Cara Buono) tried to take on a demo with a broken wine bottle and Ted Wheeler grabbed his golf club. He was decidedly not as successful as Karen, who still failed.
But the two parents did try to fight to protect Holly. More than they did when Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) were dealing with the Upside Down on their own while their parents were left in the dark. With Holly, the two stepped up and it landed them in the hospital back in Hawkins.
In season 5 vol. 1, we saw Mike and Nancy visit Karen in the hospital. They did not do the same for Ted. In vol. 2, Karen saves the day and she gets to be included in the finale moments. Ted was not there. So the question is: Is Ted Wheeler even alive right now or do his kids just hate him that much that they don’t care about him and his well-being? Because we haven’t even gotten a verbal nod to Ted at all.
At least Karen is still a badass
(Netflix)
Buono has played Karen Wheeler since season 1 but she has been an involved parent. She always asked where Mike was going, was trying to be there for Nancy, and was always taking care of Holly. Ted was asleep on the recliner. But Karen really did step up in season 5 in a big way.
At the start, she tried to fight a demogorgan single-handedly. At the end of season 5 vol. 2, she took out a bunch of demodogs to save Max (Sadie Sink), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Robin (Maya Hawke) and Vickie (Amybeth McNulty). Karen explodes them and returns to the team even though she can’t even speak. So she made sure that the kids were safe, even though the Wheeler children weren’t involved in that moment.
That’s pretty incredible and it was amazing that Karen got that moment on Stranger Things. However, it did make me wonder where Ted was. He was left in critical condition and the last we saw of him, he was fighting for his life. So will we get our answer in the packed series finale on New Year’s Eve? Or are we going to end up heading into the unknown post-Stranger Things world without the knowledge of what happened to Ted Wheeler?
We’ll just have to wait and see what happens in the series finale but know that I will be wondering whether or not Ted is alive or dead.
(featured image: Netflix)
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Rachel Leishman
Editor in Chief
Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is the Editor in Chief of the Mary Sue. She’s been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff’s biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she’s your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell’s dog, Brisket.
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